Hi Jude:
If you are a coach you must know physiological and biochimical changes occur when you go play in high altitude. For this reason players need some time to get aclimatation! But it is no where proven that playing at 12:00 midday can have an serious impact on the game. Sure for players who do not use to be in such hot temperature it would be very hard. (Remember the 1986 Word Cup in Mexico a lot of games were at 12:00. Diego complained a lot but Argentina got the championship). By the way let me rememberl you we play Brazil in Sylvio Cator at 3:00PM in August 2004 and lost 6-0!
By the other hand Passarella could build a team with players from the national league only because THEY ARE GOOD AND AVAILABLE! He could not keep the players in european leagues for such time in Bolivia.
I keep thinking mixing international and local players can be usefull for national team, because local players who do not have the posibility to have great coaches can learn a lot from their teammates and enhance their potential.
If you a